Lufthansa, SAP announce winners of Aviation Blockchain Challenge

The Challenge, which boasted 312 entries, was organized by the two firms and aimed to find use cases for blockchain technology in the aviation industry.

Three teams, from nine finalists, took home the prizes after presenting their solutions to a jury of experts and several hundred representatives of the Lufthansa Group Innovation Community.

Airlines

500Labs, which is working on a decentralized flight data infrastructure, won the “Airline Challenge”. Their solution allowed secure and standardized data sharing between parties involved in flight operations, such as airports, airlines and their suppliers. This could help speed up turn-around times and reduce delays – something which everyone would welcome.

Vchain for digital identity management was also a finalist in this category, as was BagX a platform for baggage handling developed by the Swissport team.

Travelers

The next category, “Traveler Challenge”, was won by Sweetbridge. This team created a blockchain-based marketplace where various financial and treasury transactions can take place. However, where Sweetbridge differs from traditional online marketplaces is the monthly cashback that both buyers and sellers receive. This would help incentivize both sides to continue using the marketplace. For the airline industry, the potential for Sweetbridge’s system to improve loyalty programmes particularly impressed judges.

The two finalists in this category were SkyBuys a rewards platform for airport retail and Avinoc a distributed database for private business flights with no intermediaries.

Suppliers

14bis Supply Tracking won the “Supplier Challenge” category. The start-up developed a blockchain-based application that improved the transparency and efficiency of airline component supply chains. Crucially, the solution is compatible with today’s systems and so would not require massive investment to implement.

Sorablocks made it to the final three by creating a platform to manage kerosene across all airlines and airports. The other finalist was Skyy network for drone management.

Christian Langer, Vice President Digital Strategy Lufthansa Group and Jury Chairman of the Aviation Blockchain Challenge said: “We discovered outstanding teams and interesting blockchain applications in aviation worldwide and initiated an in-depth exchange between the best teams and experts from Lufthansa and SAP, which we will further intensify after the challenge. ”

The three winning teams are now exploring applications with various specialist groups within Lufthansa. The winners will also gain access to SAP’s considerable network of customers, helping them to expand and develop their ideas.